1

XX.
But foon the pageant fades away!
'Tis Nature only bears perpetual sway.

We pierce the counterfeit delight,
Fatigu'd with splendour's irksome beams,
Fancy again demands the fight
Of native

groves,

and wonted streams,
Pants for the scenes that charm’d her youthful eyes,
Where Truth maintains her court, and banishes disguise.

XXI.
Then hither oft ye senators retire,

With Nature here high converse hold ;
For who like STAMFORD her delights admire,

Like STAMFORD shall with scorn behold
Th’unequal bribes of pageantry and gold;
Beneath the British oak's majestick shade,

Shall see fair Truth, immortal maid,
Friendship in artless guise array’d,

Honour, and moral Beauty shine
With more attractive charms, with radiance more divine,

XXII.
Yes, here alone did highest Heav'n ordain

The lasting magazine of charms,
Whatever wins, whatever warms,
Whatever fancy seeks to share,
The great, the various, and the fair,

For ever should remain !

XXIII. Her

XXIII.
Her impulse nothing may restrain-
Or whence the joy ’mid columns, tow'rs,
'Midst all the city's artful trim,
To rear some breathless vapid flow'rs,

Or Mrubs fuliginously grim :
From rooms of filken foliage vain,
To trace the dun far diftant

grove,
Where smit with undissembled pain,

The wood-lark mourns her absent love
Borne to the dusty town from native air,
To mimick rural life, and soothe fome vapour'd fair.

XXIV.
But how must faithlefs Art prevail,
Should all who taste our joy sincere,
To virtue, truth or science dear,
Forego a court's alluring pale,

For dimpled brook and leafy grove,
For that rich luxury of thought they love!
Ah no, from these the publick sphere requires

Example for it's giddy bands;

From these impartial Heav'n demands
To spread the flame itself inspires;

To fift Opinion's mingled mass,
Impress a nation's taste, and bid the sterling pass.

XXV.
Happy, thrice happy they,
Whose graceful deeds have exemplary shone
Round the gay precincts of a throne,

With mild effective beams !
Who bands of fair ideas bring,
By folemn grott, or shady spring,

To join their pleasing dreams!
Theirs is the rural bliss without alloy,

They only that deserve, enjoy.
What tho' nor fabled Dryad haunt their grove,

Nor Naiad near their fountains rove,
Yet all embody'd to the mental fight,

A train of smiling Virtues bright

Shall there the wise retreat allow,
Shall twine triumphant palms to deck the wanderer's brow.

XXVI.
And though by faithless friends alarm’d,
Art have with Nature wag'd presumptuous war;

By SEYMOUR's winning influence charm'd,
In whom their gifts united shine,

No longer shall their counsels jar.
"Tis hers to mediate the peace :

Near Percy-lodge, with awe-ftruck mien,

The rebel seeks her lawful Queen,
And havock and contention cease.

I see the rival pow'rs combine,

And aid each other's fair design;
Nature exalt the mound where Art shall build ;
Art shape the gay alcove, while Nature paints the field.

XXVII. Begin,

XXVII.
Begin, ye fongsters of the grove !

warble forth your noblest lay;
Where SOMERSET vouchsafes to rove
Ye leverets freely sport and play.

-Peace to the strepent horn!
Let no harsh dissonance difturb the morn,

No sounds inelegant and rude
Her facred folitudes profane!
Unless her candour not exclude

The lowly shepherd's votive strain,
Who tunes his reed amist his rural chear,
Fearful, yet not averse, that SOMERSET should hear.

*******

*****

Inscriptionnear a Sheep-cote. 1745. .

By the Same.

Hepherd, would'st thou here obtain

Pleasure unalloy'd with pain ?
Joy that suits the rural sphere?
Gentle shepherd ! lend an ear.

- Think not fhe, whose empty pride
6. Dares the Aeecy garb deride;
“ Think not she who, light and vain,
« Scorns the sheep, can love the fwain.